Reason and reasoning | Rationalist Society of Australia

The Australian: “You can’t cancel me”

Rosemary Neill — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 06:23:43 +0000

By Helen Pluckrose Helen Pluckrose describes herself as a secular liberal humanist, dog lover, mother, food masher and — more surprisingly for someone who planned to become a historian — an “exile from the humanities”. “I cannot be what I wanted to be, which is a feminist historian looking at literature … because I’m expected […]

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Thinking about thinking helps kids learn. How can we teach critical thinking?

Peter Ellerton — Tue, 28 Jan 2020 23:55:17 +0000

This article was authored by RSA Fellow Peter Ellerton, and originally appeared in The Conversation, 28th January 2020, read it in its original form here. Peter Ellerton, The University of Queensland Few people doubt the value of developing students’ thinking skills. A 2013 survey in the United States found 93% of employers believe a candidate’s […]

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Reinvent democracy or face its sure decline

Paul Monk — Fri, 17 May 2019 19:25:56 +0000

By Paul Monk, in The Australian Today is federal election day. I assume almost everyone reading this piece will be voting. In Australia, such voting is compulsory. In the US its voluntary. Opinions differ about which system is better. But suppose someone were to say to you, You have a moral obligation to not vote. […]

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The danger of being swamped by confident idiots

Hugh Harris — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 22:27:30 +0000

The Trump phenomenon and the influence of One Nation on local politics highlight how irrational beliefs seem to be shaping world events to a disturbing degree, writes Hugh Harris. Source: The danger of being swamped by confident idiots – The AIM Network Five years ago, who’d have thought Donald Trump could become the leader of […]

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This is why you will lose your argument

Peter Ellerton — Sun, 14 Jun 2015 23:30:06 +0000

So the Great Barrier Reef has not been listed as endangered by UNESCO. And same-sex marriage is high on the national agenda. Care to argue the case? Careful, there’s a minefield ahead. There is one thing that is poorly understood about arguing in the public arena. It is the reason that a strong case will […]

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How an approach to science helps define the political centre

Peter Ellerton — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 20:03:07 +0000

There was a bit of talk over the last election cycle, expressed in the usual language of political left and right, about returning the pendulum to the “sensible centre”. Sounds a good idea, but what does it mean to be politically central? And where does science fit in? It has always been a goal of […]

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Investment and cognitive bias

Meredith Doig — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 03:58:10 +0000

Cognitive fallacies can damage that most iconic of self-interested activities: investing.

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Peter Ellerton on Brandis’s logical fallacies

Peter Ellerton — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 07:04:12 +0000

RSA committee member Peter Ellerton explains why Australia’s top lawmaker has got it wrong. Brandis complains that “climate change denialists are being ‘excluded from the debate”. Ellerton points out that “deniers of climate science are as free as anyone else to make their case. That the case is not being made is not a function […]

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